Secondary Source

American Women in Cartoons 1890-1920: Female Representation and the Changing Concepts of Femininity During the American Woman Suffrage Movement: An Empirical Analysis.

Katharina Hundhammer. American Women in Cartoons 1890-1920: Female Representation and the Changing Concepts of Femininity During the American Woman Suffrage Movement: An Empirical Analysis. Pieterlen, Switzerland: Peter Lang Verlang, 2012.

Era: Post-Suffrage Era | Media: Book-Academic, Book-Non-Fiction

About the book:

Literature on the American woman suffrage movement is plentiful, but no work has systematically analyzed the visual aspect in the quest for woman suffrage. This publication fills this gap. Taking mid 19th century representations of women as a basis, it analyses political cartoons in three major woman’s journals between 1910 and 1920 and distills the visual representation of women in the counterpublic sphere of the woman partisan press. The portrayal of women in political cartoons of three general interest journals during the same time period simultaneously helps to trace sociocultural changes in the general concept of femininity in early 20th century USA. Women’s claim for suffrage not only asked for a political right. At the same time, the gender concepts of the day were being negotiated in a highly charged public discourse, in which the visual medium of the cartoon served as a particularly effective means of emotional persuasion.

The three major women’s journals analyzed in this work are: The Woman’s Journal (the official publication of the National American Woman Suffrage Association); The Suffragist (published by the Woman’s Party); and The Woman Voter (a regional suffrage publication based in New York City). Hundhammer also analyzes cartoons published in three general interest magazines: Life,Harper’s Weekly, and The Literary Digest. Of particular interest are the first few chapters of this book, which focus specifically on the suffrage movement.

ISBN-10: 3631637985
ISBN-13: 978-3631637982

A preview of the introduction is available in PDF format from beckshop.de. You can buy a copy of American Women in Cartoons 1890-1920 from its publisher’s website. College and public libraries are also likely to hold a copy of the book; check WorldCat to see if there is one near you.